A fuel injector is discussed in German Published Patent Application No. 198 15 789, characterized by featuring a swirl disk downstream from a valve seat, such disk being made of at least one metallic material, having at least two swirl channels terminating in a swirl chamber and all layers of such disk being built up directly one upon the other by electrodeposition (multi-layer galvanizing), such that they are bonded. The swirl disk is incorporated in the injector in such a way that its surface normal runs obliquely to the longitudinal axis of the injector, at an angle which deviates from 0°, with the result that the orientation of the swirl disk can be used to bring about a stream angle of γ relative to the longitudinal axis of the injector.
Disadvantages of the fuel injector of German Published Patent Application No. 198 15 789 may be that a high level of manufacturing effort may be needed, and the resultant costs, which are the consequence of combining a large number of individual components, which it is not possible to integrate into mass-produced fuel injectors without considerable expenditure. In order to modify the fuel injector for any desired potential application, extensive manufacturing and assembly work may be needed. In particular, the jet angles α and γ may not be implementable, or may be implemented only unsatisfactorily, using available swirl creation methods. This may cause the jet of fuel or the metered quantity of fuel to be asymmetrical and inhomogeneous.